Louisa, meet Neil. Neil, meet Louisa. Be careful Louisa, he's got a sword and he's pretty nifty with it!
I think the aspects of Western society that you describe are pretty marginal, or at least they are to the people of Blackburn that Jack Straw represents. Muslims have been commonplace in British society for a long time now, at least since the 1960s when many were expelled from East Africa. They introduced the late-opening corner shop and the ubiquitous curry house, and were pretty much an institution. The men wore western clothes and the women wore, if not western clothes too, the shalmar kameez, which looks rather elegant.
Formal "islamic" dress is something new, someting that only really became common, ooh. about four years ago (I wonder what happened about then?). And the wearers aren't, on the whol;e, incomers, they are the children of westernised parents who are withdrawing into a ghetto of their own making.
Louisa, I think you might have been as appalled as I was a while back, just before I left Reading. A young Bangladeshi couple with a baby were in the doctor's reception registering with the practice. He wore an open-necked shirt, and jeans, held the baby and did all the talking. She wore full jilbab with niqab, stood back minding the pushchair, and said nothing. When they left the man was pushing the baby in the pushchair and the woman followed a few paces behind. That doesn't look like a relationship of equality to me.
You might be interested in this article by Polly Toynbee (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1924021,00.html) in today's Grauniad.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 08:20 am (UTC)I think the aspects of Western society that you describe are pretty marginal, or at least they are to the people of Blackburn that Jack Straw represents. Muslims have been commonplace in British society for a long time now, at least since the 1960s when many were expelled from East Africa. They introduced the late-opening corner shop and the ubiquitous curry house, and were pretty much an institution. The men wore western clothes and the women wore, if not western clothes too, the shalmar kameez, which looks rather elegant.
Formal "islamic" dress is something new, someting that only really became common, ooh. about four years ago (I wonder what happened about then?). And the wearers aren't, on the whol;e, incomers, they are the children of westernised parents who are withdrawing into a ghetto of their own making.
Louisa, I think you might have been as appalled as I was a while back, just before I left Reading. A young Bangladeshi couple with a baby were in the doctor's reception registering with the practice. He wore an open-necked shirt, and jeans, held the baby and did all the talking. She wore full jilbab with niqab, stood back minding the pushchair, and said nothing. When they left the man was pushing the baby in the pushchair and the woman followed a few paces behind. That doesn't look like a relationship of equality to me.
You might be interested in this article by Polly Toynbee (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1924021,00.html) in today's Grauniad.